The invention relates to a device for creating perforations, borings or channels in the heart wall, especially the myocardium, for producing channels running in the heart wall for supplying it with blood.
For treating low circulation areas of the heart muscle, creating perforations and channels from the exterior with the aid of laser beams is known, which perforations and channels after a certain time grow over again on the heart exterior, but owing to the energy of the laser beams, remain as permanent channels in the heart interior which are supplied from the interior of the heart with a part of the blood conveyed by the heart, so that in this way an improvement in the general blood supply of the heart muscle can be attained. Moreover, it has become apparent that such perforations in the heart wall generated by laser beams can even form channel-like side branches, so that creating such perforations at a certain spacing suffices to again provide a relatively large area of the heart muscle with a better blood supply.
This treatment of the heart of course requires opening the chest cavity (thoracotomy), which is not possible in every case with patients whose heart is poorly supplied with blood, because they cannot withstand a serious operation of this type under all circumstances. In addition, the heart bleeds for a while with the new operation, so that the patient also suffers a loss of blood.
Moreover, only a relatively short channel corresponding approximately to the thickness of the heart wall can be constructed, and whether in this connection a sufficient number of side branches also arise to lead to an ample blood supply is uncertain. Consequently, the surgeon is faced with the question of how many perforations of this type, and at what intervals, he must make in order to perform a successful operation.